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Bay Area theatre reviews with KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky,.Older posts include theatre interviews recorded pre-pandemic. LINK TO ASSORTED LOCAL THEATER & BOOK VENUES

  1. 2D AGO

    Review: “Alicia Keys’ Hells Kitchen” at the Orpheum in San Francisco

    KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews the national touring company production of  “Hell’s Kitchen” at the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco.           FULL TEXT: Following the release of her debut album in 2001, Songs in A Minor, singer songwriter Alicia Keys became an instant superstar, a position firmed up by a series of successful albums and Grammy Awards over the course of the next decade. So it is not surprising that a jukebox musical would at some point emerge. And thus we have Hells Kitchen, which runs at the Orpheum Theatre through May 24th. Most jukebox shows fall into two categories: a history of the performer’s career, with the songbook performed in the order the songs were recorded, with occasional numbers shoehorned into the story, or an original story retconned to make the songs fit the plot. Hells Kitchen presents new songs and shoehorned ones in a sanitized autobiography. The show focuses on Alicia Keys’ life at the age of seventeen, as she and her single mom reside in a high-rise inthe gentrifying neighborhood west of Times Square. She fights with her mom over an older boy and winds up learning piano from an elderly woman living in the building’s public room. The low stakes — who didn’t fight with their parents at that age? means there’s minimal forward movement. Despite the piano lessons, we never learn of Ali’s talent, nor her ambitions. The songs themselves, well it’s hard to follow lyrics distorted by melisma and drowned out by orchestration. The reconstructed old songs are unrecognizable, and the new ones have no center. Many songs start small and turn into a cacophany, with random dancers performing aerobics disguised as choreography. This may work at a Demi Lovato concert, or a Warriors Halftime Show, but doesn’t quite fly inside a stage musical. There are pleasures, most notably in the work of Kennedy Caughell as Jersey, Ali’s mother, Desmond Sean Elliott as Davis, Ali’s dad, and most notably, Roz White as Miss Liza Jane, the pianist who teaches Ali how to be a musician. And while Alicia Keys isn’t there to perform them, her songs all work within her own specific musical ballpark. It’s Alicia Keys without Alicia Keys, one supposes. Ultimately, none of the complaints matter. The show ran two years on Broadway, over 750 performances. Costing 22 million dollars to produce, the show made back only 60% of its capitalization. This tour is an attempt to make up the difference, and judging by the ovation opening night at the Orpheum, it just might. Hells Kitchen runs at the Orpheum through May 24th. For more information, go to atgtickets.com. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area theatre for KPFA. The post Review: “Alicia Keys’ Hells Kitchen” at the Orpheum in San Francisco appeared first on KPFA.

    6 min

  2. APR 30

    Review: “Hamnet” at ACT Toni Rembe (Geary) Theatre

    KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews the Royal Shakespeare Company touring production of “Hamnet” at ACT Toni Rembe (Geary) Theatre through May 24, 2026.         Text of Review: In November 2025, a film adaptation of the 2020 Maggie O’Farrell novel Hamnet hit the screens of America. Four months later, Jessie Buckley won an Oscar for the role of Agnes Hathaway, wife of William Shakespeare, and mother of their three children. But back in April 2023, the same month that Chloe Zao was contracted to co-author and direct the screenplay of Hamnet, a stage adaptation of the novel made its premiere under the auspices of the Royal Shakespeare Company at their home, the Swan Theatre in Stratford-on-Avon in England. And it’s a touring production by that same company that is now at ACT’s Toni Rembe Theatre through May 24th. From a purely academic viewpoint, it’s fascinating to examine the differences between the two adaptations. The same high points exist in both, sometimes the dialogue even matches. The characters are mostly the same, though the film’s Will, played by Paul Mescal, is warmer and more family oriented than Rory Alexander’s Will on stage. The line from late in the film, “you weren’t here” for instance, now has a resonance because the on stage Will often is not there, spending more time in London than his family would like, and Agnes complains. Agnes’s ugly relationship with her stepmother Joan is fleshed out in the play, as is the turbulent relationship between Will and his father, played on stage by the scene-stealing Nigel Barrett. Act One of the play takes twenty minutes on film. The film zooms into the family surrounding Shakespeare’s  young son. The play tells a more broader story, how Shakespeare became Shakespeare. Jessie Buckley’s Agnes is someone we deeply care about, almost a modern woman dropped five hundred years into the past. Kemi-Bo Jacobs’ Agnes on stage is extremely difficult. There’s a reason why it takes a while for the other characters to warm up to her. She’s often loud and angry, with an annoying cadence in her voice. It’s almost no wonder that Will wants to spend so much time in London. Which is likely the more authentic performance? One other thing: the film nails the ending. The play, not so much. But then again, here we have a top-notch British production, the kind you’d only see in Stratford-on-Avon or maybe the West End, in person, with a massive gorgeous set, and actors who have been studying Shakespeare since infancy. People travel to England for productions like this, whatever their flaws. And now it’s right at your front door. The Royal Shakespeare Company and Neal Street productions Hamnet plays at ACT’s Toni Rembe Theatre through May 24th. For more information go to act-sf.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area theatre for KPFA. The post Review: “Hamnet” at ACT Toni Rembe (Geary) Theatre appeared first on KPFA.

    6 min

  3. APR 26

    Review: “Come from Away” at TheatreWorks Mountain View

    KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews the musical “Come from Away” at TheatreWorks Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts through May 10, 2026.       Text of Review: Works of art age in different ways. Chekhov’s plays, for example, were written and performed as contemporary pieces. Now their dachas and threadbare aristocrats are artifacts of history, though the universal truths remain. And nobody in their right mind would today produce Milk and Honey, Jerry Herman’s ode to Zionism. So what to make of the hit musical, “Come from Away,” which made its Broadway debut less than ten years ago, and is now in a regional production at TheatreWorks Mountain View venue through May 10th? The show tells the story of how the town of Gander Newfoundland became the temporary home of thousands of travelers forced to land there in the wake of the tragedy of 9/11, when United States airspace was closed. The town and surrounding burgs all came alive with hospitality, proving that Canadians and Americans were all one family, and a family takes care of its own. A tale of comradery in the midst of tragedy. A happy play involving 9/11? Yes, it was possible because that day and its aftermath was still the defining moment in the lives of American adults living in 2017. There was the before, there was the after. “Come from Away” did not need to stress the feeling. Everyone in the audience knew it. It was in the pit of their stomachs and had been for over a decade. But that was then. In 2020 came the lockdown, a new before and after. And then came Trump Two and yet another before and after. A now coarser world where amiability just doesn’t hold much sway. That sick feeling over the towers? Gone, now we doomscroll and hope tomorrow there will be a planet. And “Come from Away”? The show feels too light, too negiligible for its own good, with a hole at its emotional core. This staging, which reflects the original, avoids images of the towers coming down, apparently too traumatic for audiences a decade ago watching a feel-good musical. Maybe it’s time to rethink the presentation. Also, looking at waterfalls and domestic squabbles?  Who cares? And graciousness isn’t going to stop Stephen Miller. Today, of course, would Canada even let the planes land? The damage wrought by the current regime goes on and on. The acting, the singing, the choreography, on that level this production is first rate. It’s all quite lovely. But the depth that keeps Chekhov alive is absent. This “Come from Away” is gorgeous, but the show itself is an empty footnote. Come from Away plays at Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts through May 10th. For more information you can go to theatreworks.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area theater for KPFA. The post Review: “Come from Away” at TheatreWorks Mountain View appeared first on KPFA.

    6 min

  4. APR 15

    Review: “The Monsters” at Berkeley Rep Peets Theatre

    KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “The Monsters” by Ngozi Anyanwu at Berkeley Rep’s Peets Theatre through May 3, 2026. West Coast Premiere.           TEXT OF REVIEW: (minor differences between the text and the recorded review). Putting aside solo performances, the heart of the theatrical experience usually lies in the interaction between two characters, no matter the size of the cast. Obviously, several characters in plays can interact with each other at once, but the most intense scenes are usually one on on. When these interchanges work well, we talk about the chemistry between actors. When they don’t, it becomes obvious. One actor is listening and responding, the other pretending, and the audience knows it. Here’s the thing, though. None of it quite works the same way in film or TV. There are multiple takes, cross-cutting. Confrontations might even be recorded separately and put together in post-production. It feels real, but too often it isn’t. Only in live theatre, happening in real time, can we see the the meeting in real time, in front of us. And that’s the key to why The Monsters by Ngozi Anyanwu, now at Berkeley Rep’s Peets Theatre through May 3rd works so well. Big is a fighter in the world of Mixed Martial Arts, which has grown into a major sports competition and combines various disciplines which can, at times, seem almost balletic. Lil, whose real name is Josephine, shows up after one of his bouts, and after some back and forth, reveals she’s the younger half-sister he abandoned in his late teens to go out in the world and find himself. It’s awkward. They’d been close when she was at the start of her middle childhood, and then he was gone. Gradually, he will now feel the pull of family, as will she. But it will take time, and effort on both their parts. This is a play about siblings, about the restrictions inherent upon black people growing up in mixed and broken families, with the physicality of the competition serving as metaphor for their growing relationship, as attitudes and situations shift between the two. The playwright herself, Ngozi Anyanwu plays Lil, spunky, irreverent, and Sullivan Jones more than matches her as Big, in both his physicality and his emotional truthfulness. Their interplay, their moments of quiet, of fun, of anger, and of confrontation, can only reach its apex in live theatre. The playwright notes that quote here are big political things happening in the world, I think the way to engage politically is by humanizing people, and that starts at home. I’m always trying to make sure people feel seen. In The Monsters, both through the play’s script, through the direction of Tamilla Woodward, and through the often raw and honest acting, these characters and their need for connection is clearly and satisfyingly seen. The Monsters by Ngozi Anyanwu plays at Berkeley Rep’s Peets Theatre through May 3rd. For more information you can go to Berkeley.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area Theatre for KPFA. The post Review: “The Monsters” at Berkeley Rep Peets Theatre appeared first on KPFA.

    3 min

  5. APR 8

    Review: “Flex” at San Francisco Playhouse

    KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “Flex” by Candice Jones, at San Francisco Playhouse through May 2, 2026.           TEXT OF REVIEW: Film and TV audiences love sports stories, groups of disparate people thrown together striving to work as one to achieve their goal, usually to win the big game. From Major League to Ted Lasso to The Sandlot, we are entranced by how the characters grow and mature, and hopefully, in the end, they will become heroes. Sports stories in live theatre are few and far between, most likely because you can’t really show the games. And sports stories about girls, black girls in particular? They’re nowhere to be found, except in the play Flex by Candice Jones, having its West Coast premiere at San Francisco Playhouse through May 2nd. Flex tries the impossible: to actually show the game, or at least some facsimile. The stage has basketball hoops at both ends, the one stage right in a playground, and stage left at a gym. We’re in a small town in Arkansas in 1998, a team of five high school girls, all black, as is their coach, are just good enough to win a regional championship. We zero in on Starra Jones, played with hip-hop swagger by Santeon Brown, the best athlete on the stage. In the opening sequence, all five are pregnant, only they’re not. It’s a test to see how they would play with big bellies because small town girls always become pregnant and are forced to leave the team. But we soon learn one of them, April, actually is pregnant. She wants to play, but the coach says no. The championship is important because scouts will be there, there will be scholarships available and who knows, maybe the newly founded WNBA could be in someone’s future, and Starra, willing to stretch ethics to get ahead, wants to be the one they see. But maybe it’s Sidney who’s the best on the team, and maybe Starra needs to figure out a way to take the spotlight. April, for her part, isn’t sure she wants to keep the baby. The religious Cherisse meanwhile, is uncomfortable with her sexuality. Each girl has her own secrets. Flex – named after the team’s signature five-person shoot around play – is set on basketball courts, and much of the play occurs on the court. This works in conception, but not always in practice. The bouncing ball muffles the dialogue, and the road to the championship becomes a McGuffin only the girls care about. It’s in the non-basketball scenes that the play really comes alive, and where the actors really shine, and its those scenes that makes Flex worth seeing. Flex by Candrice Jones, directed by Margo Hall, plays at San Francisco Playhouse through May 2nd. For more information, you can go to SFPlayhouse.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area Theatre for KPFA. The post Review: “Flex” at San Francisco Playhouse appeared first on KPFA.

    6 min

  6. MAR 31

    Review: “The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?” at Shotgun Players Ashby Stage

    KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews :”The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?” by Edward Albee at Shotgun Players Ashby Stage through April 28, 2026.                 TEXT OF REVIEW: (some wording is different in the recording) Edward Albee’s reputation beyond theatre junkies mostly rests on one play, his masterpiece, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.  While that play shows off his caustic wit to great effect, it’s perhaps one of the least absurdist of his plays. And Edward Albee, over all, is one of the greatest of absurdist playwrights, in plays ranging from his early masterpiece, The Zoo Story, to Tiny Alice and Seascape. The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? , which won the Tony Award for Best New Play in 2002, excels in both strains. Absurdist and deeply weird, it also contains some of Albee’s most cutting wit, all elements in full display in Shotgun Players current production, which runs through April 28th at the Ashby Stage. In this production, directed by Kevin Clarke, the play opens on a bare stage. Later we will learn where we are. That separation from reality, while likely guided by financial concerns, also separates us somewhat from the reality the characters are facing, in a way accentuating the strange events to follow. A happily married couple with a gay teen aged son they adore, Martin and his wife Stevie  are preparing themselves for a TV interview, conducted by Martin’s best friend.  Martin, though, is having memory issues. It’s his fiftieth birthday, and no, he doesn’t have early onset alzheimers. We will learn soon enough that he is severely distracted by something, and we will also learn, soon enough, why.  

Albee himself stated that The play is about love, and loss, the limits of our tolerance and who, indeed, we really are.”  As with so many of Albee’s plays, It’s hard to put a finger on what this play is: comedy, tragedy, an experiment in believability? Is it Albee’s response to the homophobia he experienced throughout his life? On another level, all that hardly matters in a production that is utterly riveting from start to finish. Erin Mei-Ling Stuart is pitch perfect as Stevie. Granted, she’s the one with the best lines, but she takes it to the max. It’s hard to imagine a better performance in the role, on Broadway or elsewhere. William Giammona, as Martin has a tougher task, onstage at almost every moment, he must make every comment real, every response real, and happily he’s up to the task. The two other members of the cast, Joel Ochoa as their son Billy and Kevin Singer as Martin’s friend Ross, help make every scene compelling. All in all, it’s an exhilarating night in the theatre. The Goat, or Where Is Sylvia plays at Shotgun Players Ashby Stage through April 28th . For more information you can go to shotgunplayers.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area theatre for KPFA. The post Review: “The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?” at Shotgun Players Ashby Stage appeared first on KPFA.

    6 min

  7. MAR 25

    Review: “Assassins” at Oakland Theatre Project

    KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “Assassins” by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman, at Oakland Theatre Project extended to April 12, 2026.         TEXT OF REVIEW: When Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s Assassins first opened in 1990, the show focused on the relationship between America’s gun culture and the need to be seen. Looking at presidential assassins and would-be assassins, we see desperate people finding all kinds of excuses to rationalize their actions. Today, mass shooters don’t care about being seen, and obviously neither do the masked thugs of ICE. But Assassins still speaks to us in different ways, as is evident in the production now at Oakland Theatre Project through April 5th. As Oakland Theatre Project’s Executive Artistic Director Michael Socrates Moran says , Assassins was always a work of experimental theatre, so why not experiment further and turn a show, which usually features eight actors, into a one-person tour de force, signifying modern day loneliness and desperation. He notes that we’ve all become separated from the community experience, constantly checking our phones, watching films at home, shopping without going to a shop. Those solo experiences breed the same disconnection that gave rise to these would be and actual assassins. In addition, there’s a line in the show, about returning America to what it was, which resonates deeply with Trump’s entire movement, as if MAGA itself is now a single-focused assassin. A concept musical, Assassins takes place in an imaginary early 20th Century fair midway, filled with games, rides and hawkers. Each assassin is there, together and alone. Taking us from John Wilkes Booth past the Reagan and Ford would-be killers, and then back to Lee Harvey Oswald. In this production, that all rests on the shoulders of Adam Kuve Niemann, who plays all the assassins and all the minor characters. He sings the choral songs and the duets, switching back and forth, and he’s phenomenal. The operative mood of the country as performed here though, isn’t loneliness, it’s anger, an anger that explodes in the songs, emphasizing the atonality of the music, which matches the madness and despair of the characters. It is the seething and explosive anger of today’s America, and it turns Assassins into something very contemporary. Where this Assassins is less successful is during the scenes between the songs. Some work well enough, others, with overlapping dialogue, stop the show dead in its tracks, as do the long pauses that give the actor time to breathe and regroup. But when Assassins does work, which is most of the time, the results are revelatory and why ultimately, this Assassins is unforgettable. Assassins plays at Flax Art and Design through April 5th. For more information you can go to oaklandtheatreproject.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area Theatre for KPFA.   The post Review: “Assassins” at Oakland Theatre Project appeared first on KPFA.

    6 min

  8. MAR 2

    Review: “All My Sons” at Berkeley Rep Roda Theatre

    KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “All My Sons” by Arthur Miller, at Berkeley Rep Roda Theatre through March 22, 2026.               TEXT OF REVIEW Great plays stay relevant, no matter the time or setting, or even subject matter. It could be a castle in Denmark in medieval times, a diner in Pittsburgh’s Hill District in the 1960s, a cramped Chicago apartment in the 1950s, a shabby dacha in Tsarist Russia, or even Central Park during the AIDS crisis. Or it could be 1947, Just after World War II, in the backyard of a house in an Ohio town, as is the case with “All My Sons” by Arthur Miller, the classic play that gave the playwright his first success in the theatre, and is now seen in a brilliant and unforgettable production at Berkeley Rep through March 22nd. Joe Keller is the successful owner of an appliance company, having made his money on government contracts during the war years, it’s the American dream come true. Joe’s wife Kate refuses to believe their son Larry died three years ago after being reporting missing in action. Their other son Chris came back from the war changed, along with a sense of ethics that is heartening and sometimes terrifying. Into their lives and the lives of their neighbors returns their former neighbor Annie Deever, who had been Larry’s girlfriend but now has changed her focus to Chris, who wants to marry her. All My Sons touches on so many relevant issues today. The horror of war, the immorality of capitalism, government pressure on business, and the emptiness of the American dream. The play delves into father-son relationships, the nature of grief, the personal effect of war, of ambition, and most emphatically  the places where ethics and love run up against each other as if enemies. Though the plot’s outlines are based on a real news story, the play’s stance toward capitalism and corruption brought Miller to the attention of HUAC. Corruption and Republican politics have a long and sordid history. Leading the cast are Jimmy Smits and his real life partner Wanda de Jesus as Joe and Kate, their chemistry visible and dynamic in every scene they’re together, two top performers at the peak of their powers. One can single out every other actor in the cast as well and It’s a dream ensemble. Director David MendizAbal has styled this as the story of a Puerto Rican family, leading to a cast largely consisting of people of color. Puerto Ricans were a visible group in Ohio at the time, also seeking the American Dream. It adds a new wrinkle, and it works. This memorable production of All My Sons only runs through March 22nd.  It is must-see theatre. For more information you can go to berkeleyrep.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area theatre for KPFA.   The post Review: “All My Sons” at Berkeley Rep Roda Theatre appeared first on KPFA.

    6 min
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About

Bay Area theatre reviews with KPFA Theatre Critic Richard Wolinsky,.Older posts include theatre interviews recorded pre-pandemic. LINK TO ASSORTED LOCAL THEATER & BOOK VENUES

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  • Creator
    KPFA
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2026
  • Episodes
    25
  • Rating
    Clean
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    © 2026KPFA 312700
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